S.A.’s Time Warner customers getting Al Jazeera America

Time Warner Cable customers, including those in San Antonio and surrounding areas, soon will have access to a new news network: Al Jazeera America.

On Thursday, cable behemoth Time Warner and the smaller Bright House Networks announced an agreement had been reached with the news network, which is owned by the Qatar-based Al Jazeera Media Network.

The channel, which features no-frill news anchored and reported by the likes of CNN veterans Soledad O’Brien (photo below) and Joie Chen (shown above), provides domestic and international news for American audiences. It is headquartered in New York City with bureaus in 12 cities across the United States.

Al Jazeera America will be launched on digital basic over the next few months in Time Warner markets across the country, including New York, Los Angeles and Dallas.

Melissa Sorola, director of communications for Time Warner-Texas, said the local debut will happen in a matter of months as well.

When the channel took over Al Gore’s Current TV a couple of months back, Time Warner originally opted not to carry it. However, the cable giant clearly has reconsidered.

“We said in January that we would consider Al Jazeera America. Now that the channel is live, we think that it would be of value to our customers and are pleased to make it available,” said Melinda Witmer, Executive Vice President, Chief Video and Content Officer for Time Warner Cable.

Al Jazeera America’s agreement with Time Warner and Bright House will make the channel available to almost 55 million homes.

“It has been a pleasure working with TWC over the past few months as their executives evaluated our programming and commitment to fact-based, in-depth reporting,” Ehab Al Shihabi, Al Jazeera America’s Interim CEO, said. “We appreciate the vote of confidence that Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks have given to our brand of unbiased journalism and look forward to working with them as Al Jazeera America continues to grow.”